A Tekhine For A New Mother

Since the late Middle Ages, Jewish women have marked special occasions by reciting tekhines, personal petitionary prayers in the vernacular. The following is a tekhine for a new mother on the occasion of her son’s bris. It may be recited privately to oneself before the ceremony starts, or recited aloud as part of the ceremony itself. Those familiar with Yiddish may find it meaningful to recite the tekhine in Yiddish, the vernacular language of AshkenaziJewry for hundreds of years; others should recite it in English or translate it into whatever language they are most comfortable with.